Weekend Reflectionings

February 11, 2009

(I like adding -ings to things that are not present active participles. It’s a very roundabout way of verbing something.)

On Saturday, I spent a good deal of time with vaseline and saran wrap in my hair, breathing through a straw, lying blind and immobilized on the floor of one of the art buildings. My housemate, Becca, is using my face for an art project. There are, as a result of Saturday, now eight copies of me on the kitchen table. She’s got plaster, two different kinds of wax, and latex. I think the others are still in the art buildings. Jokes abound about using my face as a weapon, or attributing flaws to me via my face. Or, in the case of the latex copy, using my face as a condom. It’s a little disturbing.

On Sunday, I was taken by my parents and youngest sister to lunch up Highway One at Davenport. The smoked salmon over polenta was exquisite. Afterwards, we went spiking for a little while, then checked out the beach near Davenport. (Spiking is a rather unique activity my family partakes in. My father is an amateur blacksmith, so when we’re near a railroad that has had recent work done, we’ll go walk along the tracks and pick up the discarded railroad spikes and other steel and iron detritus for his use in the shop. He makes rather lovely (I think) knives out of the spikes. Very industrial-punk grunge style, but with an odd medievel flare to them.) Davenport is absolutely gorgeous, and was even moreso on that foggy, windy day. I still regret that my camera is out of commission.

While they were here, my family also delivered my birthday presents. I got books (Tales of the City, Here Comes Everybody, and Oscar Wilde’s plays) and my violin, now refurbished into playability! My violin is violet, so this is especially delightful. Now I just need lessons. And a lot of practice.

I don’t really care to talk about Monday. It was a day of awkwardness and embarrassing my poor Latin teacher in front of his mother. Today, however, programs were successfully conquered, through a combination of teamwork and brute force. It was immensely satisfying, and once everything is finalized I’ll be sure to link to the results from here.

As a side note: In cyberpunk we’re reading Dead Girls by Richard Calder. Well, technically we’re reading the whole trilogy, but I’m still on this first one. It involves zombie vampire doll robot prostitutes, and I highly recommend it.